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Chris Nau

The Workspace pieces began as drawings made out of strips of aluminum foil that were laid edgewise on a screen. Pulp was poured over them and into the shapes and spaces within the foil matrix. When the water was pressed out of the pulp, the aluminum foil was crushed within. The crushed foil was torn out, leaving cuts and scars in the damp, white paper. Large quantities of black pulp were then injected into and behind these cuts and this bulging drawing was run through the hydraulic press again. My collaborator Paul Wong and I adjusted pigments, pulps, foil, water, felt and foam layers and pressure, but we never knew exactly what would happen during the final run through the press. Black water gushed out, the felt layers holding the paper bubbled and wrinkled, and chunks of the drawings shifted. The effects were unpredictable and often extraordinary.

The finished pieces that you see are final states of this tug of war between opposites. I see them as more than images of abstract forms. They are portraits of transformation.
— Chris Nau, 2010

Chris Nau received his Master of Fine Arts from Massachusetts College of Art and Design and holds a BFA from the University of Washington.